The birth of Énergie canine Estrie
Énergie canine Estrie was created in 2016.
Once upon a time, there was a young girl who FINALLY adopted her first dog without really knowing what she was getting into by adopting an Australian Shepherd! Her childhood dream comes true. Oh my...
I will tell you my story...
I quickly understood that an Australian Shepherd had energy to spare. Pops had energy and a great need to work so to meet his needs I decided to take different classes here and there. This is where the love of training was born!
Quickly, I wanted to continue to improve myself and I wanted to share my learnings with others. This is how Énergie canine Estrie was born.
I researched and visited across Quebec to find the perfect school to learn as much as possible about dogs and the way they work. My choice fell on Guides Canins, a company located in Saint-Lazare. A company based on respect for dogs and the practice of different dog sports. Being a person full of energy (ADHD) I chose to name my business with the words that best represented me. The training sessions then took place one after the other. What a pleasure to learn new things through different training courses and trainers across Quebec.
We all have a story, mine is not a very good one to tell. My passion for dogs was born from a need for love, a need for support, a need for a significant presence. A dog will love you through life and death with unconditional love. A dog will always be happy to meet you in the evening after work. He will trust you, he will be your confidant, your sports partner, your Netflix partner, maybe even your sleeping partner. Isn't that the greatest gift in the world? My dogs are the most precious thing I have in this world. I want to share my love for them with all the dog owners I meet.
For more than 4 years I worked full time at the Sherbrooke school board, in addition to offering dog classes evenings and weekends. Yes, I also worked full time for the Sherbrooke school board as an interpreter technician for deaf people. Funny mix you say? Yes, yes I speak sign language for deaf people. Working for the school board was a great challenge for me, I learned so many things. I learned to work in a team, to work with children, to understand children. Although we can't really compare a dog to a human, there are many similarities between raising a dog and raising a child. At school we work a lot on positive reinforcement with young people, and with dogs too. It's just that children are not given dry liver.
Although I loved working for the school board, it was not my dream. This work was enormously rewarding for me, but inside me the young entrepreneur that I was was only growing. So I left the school board after more than 4 years to devote myself solely to my business. It was not an easy decision, leaving a stable, well-paid job with lots of benefits... It was a “think about it”. I was reaching a turning point where I could no longer do both. It was a nice [stressful] problem. Becoming officially self-employed brings a lot of challenges, anxieties, constraints, but you see, I did it. We did it ? WE DID IT!
At the time, when I opened Énergie canine Estrie, I had no knowledge or experience in entrepreneurship. NONE. I simply wanted to share my passion for dogs and my knowledge with other dog owners in order to support them in the challenge of training a dog. For some it will be easier, but for others it will be more difficult. To my great astonishment (not as to my abilities), but rather to customer satisfaction, word of mouth, Énergie canine Estrie has grown much faster than I could have imagined. One day, with my limited knowledge of entrepreneurship, I realized I needed help. So I went looking for training again to learn how to better manage a growing business. Against all odds, I go back to school, but this time I'm the student. I am therefore going to take a course in entrepreneurship in order to improve myself in management, marketing, accounting, sales and business. Training that will help me grow and allow me to be better equipped to perform and always offer the best to my clients.
“The sky is not the limit”.
- Angélique, Dog trainer & founder of Énergie canine Estrie 🐾
